Tetra Tech is providing volunteers, employees, and contractors across Australia—who may be exposed to bushfire risks in their duties or activities—with formal training on how to maintain awareness of and respond safely to bushfires to support resilience.

Tetra Tech has one of Australia’s largest and most dynamic bushfire and environmental consultancies. We work across Australia providing strategic bushfire planning, assessment, and mapping. Our team works with developers; home builders; building contractors; Commonwealth, state, and local government agencies; large corporations (e.g., mining and utilities); and other consultancies (e.g., town planners and project managers).

The Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Authorities Council has endorsed Eco Logical Australia, A Tetra Tech Company, to deliver the Basic Wildfire Awareness Course across Australia. This course provides participants with the relevant knowledge to recognize key risks when encountering a bushfire or a planned burn, and to take the necessary precautions to take to avoid risks and actions to keep safe. This includes understanding how bushfires start and spread, precautions on elevated fire danger days, risky wildfire scenarios, and places to seek refuge.

Each year in Australia more than 50 million hectares are burnt by wildfires, otherwise known as bushfires, and around 29 million hectares are treated with planned burns. Bushfires occur in distinct parts of Australia throughout the year as vegetation dries—with fires occurring in the northern Australia dry season from April through to September, in Queensland and Northern New South Wales from September to November, and in southeast and south west Australia from December through to March. Planned burns are scheduled outside the bushfire season in times of the year when conditions are more favorable and burns more easily controlled.

Fires can present a significant risk to life, property, environment, business continuity, local communities, and infrastructure. For people living, working, and providing services in bushfire-prone environments, improving their basic wildfire awareness can enhance their resilience. “Being situationally aware of the potential for or signs of a fire, for those working and living in the bush, and making an informed decision about what to do in a potentially stressful situation is critical to keeping people safe,” said Dominic Adshead, Tetra Tech’s principal bushfire and forestry consultant. “This course can assist in providing participants with this necessary knowledge.”

The Basic Wildfire Awareness Course is designed for non-firefighting personnel working in support roles at bushfires or planned burns and people who may encounter a fire—particularly those working or conducting activities in vegetated, bushfire-prone environments. These support roles can include media liaison personnel; wildlife carers; non-fire emergency agencies, including police, ambulance, State Emergency Service, and first aid responders; utility, tourism, and services employees; local government officers; and earthmoving machine operators. The Basic Wildfire Awareness Course is recognized by Australian fire, national parks, and forestry and land management agencies as the minimum requirement to provide these support services during a bushfire or planned burn.